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No quest journal, shitty UI, heavy influence of luck based rolls and opaque game systems are principally what puts me off from old games but sometimes the graphics are so bad that they can by itself negate any prospective purchase. That's why I always check out youtube Let's Plays of oldies before committing. I've avoided stuff like Darklands, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Ultima Underworld, X-Com UFO, Stonekeep and so on. I don't mind terrible, pixelated graphics in adventure games though. Personally I think games with bad graphics should just convert into a MUD or use abstract graphics instead of looking like poo.

Absolutely, most recent example is XCOM:Enemy Unknown. I did buy it a month or so ago during a sale and while it's a good game the art direction still bugs me. Another example would be Mechwarrior Tactics, which even though it's free2play I won't even try because it just looks so damn ugly (yes, it's in beta, I know).

Yeah, I can't play Gothic 2 or anything older because of old graphics, even though I like the games. Also most of this current indie fad of making games 8 bit graphics annoys me, if you can't be bothered making a game look ncie I can;t be bothered to play it.

But then, the main factor PC elitists use over consoles is how much better games look on PC over consoles.

I have played quite a few older games which haven't aged well, and as much as I try to appreciate some of them it can be a bit tough. I'm playing through The Longest Journey at the moment which is stuck at 640x480 and while it does still look good considering it's about 14 years old, I'm still looking forward to moving on to Dreamfall which looks much prettier in the screenshots.

I had trouble with Elite, and some other games up to early 90s. I don't mind poor graphics, but I need to know what's going on. Someone who's taken the time to learn the game, especially those who played it when it was state of the art and seemed more worth learning can recognise what a particular what a particular wireframe spaceship is and how far away it is, I'm sure, but I find it really difficult as someone who started gaming in the 90s.

I think its the same thing that puts a lot of people off ASCII games, but at least in Nethack or Dwarf Fortress you have a look command which tells you what something is.

My most memorable moment where quality of graphics killed interest in game is Gabriel Knight: Sins of Father. I put maybe four hours into that game....
but i think it was more just the graphics as I did finish Fate of Atlantis three years ago or so and had a blast.
I've beaten Theme Hospital in April, currently playing Psychonauts and will beat afterwards to the moon. I almost bought C&C pack on origin just so I could finish the first one (it takes a lot of will. the sale will be over tomorrow so till then I have to remain strong). I do think as long as game is fun to play whatever art and graphics it has is irrelevant.
except:
I will not touch something like Zork, Ultima 1 or Dwarf Fortress tough. Those scare me

I've been put off by graphics that were bad when they shouldn't be - for example games where the graphics are obviously not polished. These make me think that the game is unfinished and bound to be buggy.

I would not play it anyway, but I was amazed how paid game (even if its price was like $5) can look worse than many free amateur games.

I'm not getting pulled off by OLD graphic though. In older games I can't stand clumsy, often overcomplicated (that's why I'm not playing roguelikes) controls. This thing is WAY worse than playing in 640x480px window.

Sometimes I am put off by poor graphics, and some older games just haven't aged well, but that's not the biggest obstacle between me and old games. What I can't stand at all are stupid old UIs. Many older "gems" have terribad UIs where the mouse is severely under-used (remember the old RTS's where you had to first click a "move" button and then click on the map?) and everything is written with an unreadable font on the eight thousand nested menus and buttons that are just sprinkled all over the place, like a tornado had struck a early '90s UI component factory.

As has been said, art direction is way more important than the number of pixels, etc. However, I can't stand most "early" 3D games. There are exceptions and they gradually become more tolerable, but it's just so ugly most of the time. I don't mind pixel art and general lo-fi non-3D games. I can play and enjoy most post-Half-Life 2 games without being put off by the graphics. Except Mount & Blade (a white lie for Drake).